White-Draining Powder

White-Draining Powder

Lycii Cortex (Di Gu Pi) 1 liang (30g), Mori Cortex (Sang Bai Pi dry-fried) 1 liang (30g), Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Praeparata cum Melle (Zhi Gan Cao) 1 qian (3g)

Grind the medicinals into a crude powder. Decoct one dose of the formula with a few jing mi and two zhan of water, and boil it until the volume shrinks to about 70%. Take the decoction before meals. (Modern use: use water to decoct the medicinals.)

Clears and drains the heat constraint and relieves coughing and panting.

This formula is indicated for coughing and panting caused by lung heat. The symptoms are coughing, panting, and steaming heat of skin that worsens in the late afternoon, a red tongue body with a yellow coating, and a thready, rapid pulse.

This is a pattern of heat constraint and fire retention in the lung. The heat is constrained in the lung, which causes qi to counterflow and produce coughing and panting. Lung heat steams outward to the skin, resulting in steaming heat of the skin. Different from exterior heat, retained interior heat gradually consumes yin, which increases the steaming heat in the late afternoon. When the skin is first touched, steaming heat is evident by the warmth that is initially felt. However, the heat sensation decreases over a period of time. This characteristic makes this type of steaming heat different from the steaming heat of yangming, which increases over time. A red tongue body with a yellow coating and a thready, rapid pulse are signs of consumption of yin by pathogenic heat. Therefore, the therapeutic method used is to clear and drain heat constraint, and to relieve coughing and panting.

1. Essential pattern differentiation Xie Bai San is a commonly used formula used to treat coughing and panting caused by retained fire in the lung. This clinical pattern is marked by coughing, panting, and breathlessness, steaming heat of the skin, red tongue body with a yellow coating, and thready, rapid pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of fire retention in the lung and damage to the qi and yin: bronchitis, early stage pneumonia, and early stage rubeola in children. 3. Cautions and contraindications Do not use the formula in patients with a cough caused by wind-cold or deficiency of the lung.

Ting Li Da Zao Xie Fei Tang (Lepidium/Descurainiae and Jujube Lung-Draining Decoction, 葶藶大棗瀉肺湯)